Adrian Clarke made his Arsenal debut in 1994 and went on to make nine appearances for the Gunners before playing for a number of clubs that saw him play at every level of English football from the Premier League to the Conference South.
As an esteemed sports journalist, he is a regular on TalkSport and The Athletic’s Handbrake Off, he writes a tactics column for the Premier League, and appears on Arsenal’s Breakdown Live on each match day.
When did you start supporting Arsenal and why?
As a kid growing up in in Suffolk, I was an Ipswich Town fan and they were flying high under Sir Bobby Robson.
They were pretty much the second or third best team in the country back then, which was amazing so it was an easy team for me to jump on board with.
But I got spotted by Arsenal when I was. 10 years old. The late, great Steve Rowley, who sadly passed away last year, was at a five-a-side tournament in Colchester during the summer and gave my dad his card. And the rest is history really.
I ended up joining the Centre of Excellence that season and they gave me two tickets for most games, so would I'd sit in the West Stand lower underneath the TV gantry just to the right near the away fans.
That would have been in 1986 at the start of the George Graham era.
I was instantly hooked on Arsenal and I kind of ditched Ipswich fairly quickly.
I've got to say that wearing the badge does draw you in but being at Arsenal, I very quickly got consumed by it.
Highbury played a part for sure and in the school holidays I would go up to London Colney see the players in the flesh in the canteen which would wow you first up.
What was your first Arsenal match?
I think the first match I went to was against Manchester United at home, early in the 1986/87 season. (Arsenal won 1-0 through Charlie Nicholas)
I stood with my dad in the East Stand, to the right of the paddock where the dugouts were, just to the to the right as you come out of the tunnel.
It was quite a narrow area, but I remember I got there super early just to soak it all up. The red and white really stood out.
The players that were playing in front of me were quite young: Tony Adams, for example, was fairly young and at this point I think he had the captain's armband in his early 20s and I remember him being up close to us, as well as obviously David Rocastle… players like that Michael Thomas.
It was tremendously exciting. It really was. And I loved the gear. I loved the kit that they had, which is similar to the shirt that we've got right now with the three stripes. The shorts were a bit smaller, but I loved the tracksuit tops, which are quite retro now.
I just looked around me and thought yeah, I like this. It wasn't long after that I got invited. Into the marble halls which was a game-changer.
Just stepping in past the commissionaires in their uniform into that marble halls, where the bust of Herbert Chapman was a different world. I couldn't believe it. It just felt so grand and classy.
I had it in my head from that moment onwards that I didn’t really want to play for anyone else.
But the standout memory was the Littlewoods Cup final that season with Charlie Nicholas scoring a brace.
It was amazing, a burning hot day and I was sat there with all the Arsenal fans with my flag and my scarf.
I remember walking up Wembley Way and seeing what the Arsenal fans, it's just a glorious site.
Steve Rowley came out, all suited and booted with a little flower in his suit. It was a special occasion and he gave us our tickets and it was just magical being there and seeing Charlie Nicholas score those goals.
The other thing that made that final really special for me was Perry Groves.
Actually later went on. I became his boot boy, and I now work with him on TalkSport and he's a great bloke. We've got to know each other pretty well.
I first met him when I was under nines playing for a team called Haverhill Echo. It was the our presentation evening and they invited a local celebrity to present the medals and it was a young guy who was a star player for Colchester United at that time called Perry Groves.
He was the first footballer I shook hands with and then for him to come off the bench in that game and really make a difference against Liverpool was quite something.
The atmosphere and the songs were something and they stay with you forever, don't they? We were back there the following year for the Luton final, which didn't go quite as well.
Who was your first Arsenal hero and why?
I don't know if I've had many heroes at Arsenal.
I don't think I've ever had a hero as such in in football, but the players that I liked best were the wingers because I was a winger.
The first two that I just couldn't stop watching and admiring were Brian Marwood and Anders Limpar.
Marwood was a brilliant crosser of the ball and Limpar was cheeky, he had that drop of the shoulder, great acceleration, an impish talent, a proper little wide man.
I did get to play a few training sessions with him when I was a little bit older, which was really cool.
Then it's Rocky on the right hand side. Sitting in that West Stand lower week in week out I got to see David Rocastle and what he was about, up close and personal.
I just loved his style, loved his hard work as a team player and he was so good in those one v ones. Defenders just were frightened of him. He'd drop his shoulder, or he'd do that little shuffle, put his foot over the ball and knock it past the defender with his right.
He drilled those shots into the bottom corner at the Clock End. He charged down that wing, whipping balls across the face of goal for Alan Smith, who I have also got to know since.
It’s the wingers that I love the most because they were the guys that I wanted to emulate. I wanted to be in their shoes. And yeah, thankfully a few years later. I had a brief taste of that which was awesome.
Who is your favourite ever Arsenal player and why?
I think the best Arsenal player ever is Thierry Henry. I don't think there's any doubt about it.
He was so brilliant to watch, so gifted and so destructive, just a phenomenal talent. And he was definitely at one point the best player in the world. And Arsenal had him at that point, which was amazing.
But my favourite was Dennis Bergkamp, because of his guile, his class. He was such a pro. He was a global superstar but also just one of the lads, so normal.
We hadn't signed guys like that before. We hadn't gone and paid the big mega money for someone like that before, and I think even though it obviously pre-dates Arsene Wenger, I actually think that his signing paved the way for the Wenger..
It was a game changer and the day that he signed it transformed Arsenal from one of English football's traditional powerhouses to a European football giant. It didn't happen overnight, but we pretty quickly got there.
Dennis would do practical jokes, he'd include young players like me in conversations and after training, he was the one that would stay out and do a bit of extra and that sort of egged us on to do something similar because that hadn't really been the culture before.
But the main reason he’d be my favourite is just the quality of his goals and the quality of his assists. He had that little bit of magic in his boots, didn't he?
The chips, the little dinks, the curlers into the top corner. He never really looked as if he had to whack the ball.
He was just so so smooth. I don't think I've ever seen an Arsenal player with a silkier first touch and when I got to play with him in the first team a handful of times, it felt so cool.
I thought to myself “This is amazing. It's Dennis Bergkamp, and I'm in the same team as him!” But he made life so much easier for me and for all the other players because he'd receive your pass even if your pass wasn't the best. He'd turn it into a good one because his touch was so good.
And then if he wanted to play the ball to you, if you called for it, you’d get it perfectly, played in front of you where you didn't have to take the extra touch.
He was a world star at the time and he gave us his best years.
What’s your biggest Arsenal regret/disappointment?
My biggest disappointment is not making more first team appearances because I think that I should have done.
I worked ever so hard to get there. You know it's a long journey from the age of 10 all the way through, lots of different obstacles and challenges.
I got my chance when I was 20 and I don't really have a regret about the way I played because I think I played pretty well. I handled it OK and my temperament was fine.
I wanted the ball. I tried things. I took players on and I enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing in the first team.
But I didn't score or make an assist, so I didn't make enough of an impact on the games I played in to stay in there for longer.
The Everton game was a bit of a crossroads moment for me. I was having a decent game and in the second-half I got the ball from a throw-in, turned my man, ran with it for a bit and spanked a shot from about 30 yards.
It was going in the top corner at the North Bank end and Neville Southall – I don't know how he did it – just leapt to his left hand side and tipped it over. It got save of the week on Sky.
I do wonder, what if that went in? Well, I know that if that had gone in, I would have played more games for the first team, because people don't forget those moments and managers start to trust in you and believe in you to that you can make these things happen.
I had other chances. There was a cup game against Sheffield United and I had a gilt-edged chance but I put it in the side netting.
I do wonder what might have been if some of those had gone in. I wanted that rush of scoring for Arsenal in a first team match and the buzz that that would have given.
My other regret is that I wish I'd have been harder on myself. I wish I would have done a bit extra. I was too laid back and in football you can't be. You’ve got to be single minded.
You have to think about yourself and demand the ball. You have got to tell other people off if they're not giving it to you and you've got to be a bit more selfish. I probably didn't take that seriously enough at the time, and too many games drifted by.
Before you know it, you're not in favour anymore and you're on the way out. I’d always been one of the young players that the club pushed and I think I got a bit comfortable.
I just thought I was good enough to play for Arsenal and I'm going to stay forever, but the bottom line is, if I’d done a little bit of extra training in the afternoons, maybe studied my own game, thought about ways to improve it a little bit more, then maybe I could have stayed there longer.
These days you have psychologists and there's a lot more care about the mental side of things. Back then if you had a bad game you were just left on your own to stew about it, or your manager would have a go. We didn't have video analysis, we didn't watch our games back, and it was very basic compared to how it is now.
I should have analysed my own game, done some extra fitness training, and more crossing and shooting practice.
I knew a few of the Manchester United guys like David Beckham and Nicky Butt but hadn't seen them for a few years and when we all met up for an England youth game, I couldn't believe the level that were they were at. They had elevated their own games massively from when I'd seen them at 15 to 16 and I think it was down to the fact that they had really dedicated their lives to getting better.
I got a taste of it and will always be grateful for that. It was fantastic.
But ultimately I probably just wasn't quite good enough. The game changed. It went a bit more power and pace orientated and those weren't really my strengths. I was aa nippy, attacking midfielder, probably more of a #10 style player than a rapid winger.
In the days of 4-4-2, you didn't have a #10. You were either a winger or a striker and I was always a winger, but I think these days. I probably would have been in any of the positions behind the main striker.
I don’t spend any time dwelling on it, but I think it's important to recognise I that I could have pushed myself harder mentally. That's why going into the career I have done now as a journalist and broadcaster, I'm never making that mistake again. I'm going to work my socks off and absolutely be the best that I can be.
What is your favourite Arsenal memory (away from the pitch) and why?
I have lots of good memories away from the pitch.
We used to have Christmas parties at Park Lane Hotel and club events which were tuxedo affairs where everyone got together.
The club was much smaller back then, so the players the first team, the reserves, the youth team and all of the office staff and all the Board of Directors all go.
The black tie Christmas party was actually carnage most years.
At one, white tuxedos were in fashion at that point and few of the lads were wearing them. All of a sudden there was a food fight across the tables with various players and tuxedos getting absolutely destroyed.
We also had to sing for our Christmas tips which was absolutely brilliant but also terrifying. The youth team players had to stand on a box and sing a Christmas carol.
At the end you either got the thumbs up, or you got the thumbs down for being awful or not putting enough effort in.
If you got the thumbs down you got a bucket of dirty, muddy, stinky, icy cold water over your head!
Luckily I avoided the ice bucket!. But things like that brought the first team and the youth team together and you don't always see that these days. I had three players’ boots that I was responsible for, and I had to do so many odd jobs cleaning the changing rooms, cleaning the toilets out.
I look back on those days and I had some great laughs with a good bunch of lads and those are the things that you take away and treasure really.
What is your favourite ever Arsenal match?
It's Arsenal 3 Hull City 2 in the FA Cup Final (2014).
I took my son to the game, who was 13 or 14 at the time.
Arsenal hadn't been in cup finals for a while and the mood had become a bit toxic with the ‘Wenger In, Wenger Out’ chants.
Then we're two nil down after 10 minutes and you think, oh my goodness, this is horrendous.
And then the turnaround happened and it was just the way we did it, the way that we won. It was really special.
We both went absolutely bonkers at the winning goal, a moment you're never going to forget.
That game has to go down as one of the great Cup Finals because of the way that we fought back.
We went on to win a couple more FA Cups not too long after that. I was really pleased for Wenger and the players but also for the fans because they'd suffered a bit.